Privacy Policy

What PixGlobe stores on your device

When you grant photo-library access, PixGlobe reads each photo's metadata — including a stable photo identifier, location coordinates and their accuracy, capture date, dimensions, media type and subtype, favorite/hidden state, and a modification fingerprint used to detect edits — and stores it in a local database, together with what it derives from that metadata on-device: places, visits, inferred time zones, and place names from a bundled offline atlas. PixGlobe keeps no persistent cache of your photos' pixels: the thumbnails you browse are prepared by the system photo library, bounded to what you're viewing, and purgeable by the system. The full-quality originals stay in your Photos library; PixGlobe does not persist the original files.

Favoriting, sharing, and deleting a photo

From a photo you open, PixGlobe lets you favorite, share, or delete it, and only when you ask for it. Favorite and Delete are changes to your own device's photo library, made on this device: a favorited flag (the same one your device's own Photos app sets), or a deletion through your device's own confirmation step. On iOS, a deleted photo moves to Recently Deleted, recoverable for up to 30 days unless you remove it sooner; Android's deletion is your device's own: PixGlobe deletes through the system's standard delete confirmation, and whether a deleted photo can be recovered afterward is handled by your device, not by PixGlobe. These changes are never sent to PixGlobe or its partners. On iOS, because they are genuine changes to your Photos library, Apple may sync them to your other Apple devices through iCloud if iCloud Photos is enabled. Delete always shows the system's own confirmation first, and cancelling it changes nothing. Share hands a rendered copy of the one photo — a JPEG with the embedded GPS location removed — to a destination you choose through the system share sheet; PixGlobe uploads nothing and keeps no copy.

Setting or changing a photo's location or date

From the Unmapped view, PixGlobe lets you select photos and set or change their location and date, and only when you ask for it. This writes the location and/or date you choose directly to your device's photo library on this device — the same way Favorite and Delete write to your library. It is never sent to PixGlobe or its partners. On iOS, because it is a genuine change to your Photos library, Apple may sync it to your other Apple devices through iCloud if iCloud Photos is enabled. PixGlobe applies only the value you provide: it does not infer a location or date on your behalf, and it does not read your device's current location to do this.

This local data is yours to destroy: Settings → Delete All PixGlobe Data removes the on-device photo index, the derived places and visits, caches, and PixGlobe's user-facing settings on the spot; indexing stays paused afterward until you choose Rebuild from Photos (and the reset leaves the map provider's telemetry preference unchanged; if telemetry is disabled, Delete All does not turn it back on). Deleting the app removes all PixGlobe data on the device. Neither touches your photos.

On iOS, like most app data, parts of PixGlobe's local storage may be included in your device backups (iCloud or computer backups), which Apple manages under its own privacy terms; PixGlobe's support identifier and analytics state are excluded from backups by construction. On Android, PixGlobe excludes all of its local storage from device backup entirely.

What leaves your device — and what never does

Outside a Share action you initiate: PixGlobe does not transmit your photos or thumbnails to us, Mapbox, or another destination. It never sends photo locations, places and visits, photo identifiers, or search queries to us or Mapbox, and it adds no photo data to map requests. When you choose Share, iOS provides a rendered JPEG of that one photo, with embedded GPS location removed, to the destination you select. PixGlobe does not persist that rendered copy.

Map imagery (Mapbox)

The globe's map imagery loads over the network from Mapbox, our map provider. These requests are about the map — which areas you are viewing, and at what zoom — and, like every internet request, they necessarily reveal your device's IP address to the provider. Mapbox uses your IP address to deliver the map and, under its own policy, retains it for a limited time (about 30 days) for operation, security, and fraud prevention. PixGlobe requests no device-location permission of any kind: the app never knows where you are — only where your photos were taken — and it never adds any photo data to a map request.

PixGlobe sets Mapbox's documented telemetry opt-out before it creates the first map view, which turns off Mapbox's location-telemetry stream. Two things still reach Mapbox regardless of that setting, sent by the Mapbox SDK to run its own service: (1) a periodic signal that lets Mapbox count monthly active users for billing, which includes a device identifier scoped to this app on this device (on iOS, Apple's "identifier for vendor"); and (2) a small set of counters recording how often the map SDK's own drawing functions were used — counts only, never any content. On iOS, item (2) is sent regardless of the setting, like item (1). On Android, item (2) is sent only while telemetry is on, and is not sent under PixGlobe's shipped default (off). Neither includes your photos, your photo locations, your place names, or your photo identifiers, and neither is used for advertising; PixGlobe sends Mapbox no advertising identifier. Mapbox handles this data as an independent provider under its privacy policy.

Mapbox's attribution menu on the globe also includes a switch you can use to turn its location telemetry back on. PixGlobe ships with it off; if you turn it on, Mapbox additionally collects map-interaction telemetry as described in its policy — still not your device location, because PixGlobe requests no location permission.

Google Play Billing (Android)

On Android, purchases are processed by Google Play Billing, Google's own in-app purchase system — PixGlobe does not operate a purchase server and never receives your payment card, billing details, or store-account identity. Separately from anything PixGlobe sends, the Play Billing library itself opens a connection to Google's own logging infrastructure when the billing service starts up. This connection is Google's vendor traffic, not something PixGlobe configures, controls, or can read the contents of, and it is governed by Google's own privacy terms rather than ours.

iCloud photos

If a photo you view lives in iCloud, Apple's Photos service may download it to this device. PixGlobe does not upload it. A rendered copy goes to a share destination only if you invoke Share and select that destination.

PixGlobe analytics — none transmitted

PixGlobe's own analytics are off by default. In this version there is no analytics service connected: even if you opt in, events are only recorded locally on your device under a random identifier created after you opt in, and nothing is transmitted anywhere. Events never contain photos, locations, place names, or photo identifiers. If a future version ever adds an analytics service, it will remain opt-in, this policy will be updated first, and the app's App Store privacy label will disclose it. (This paragraph is about PixGlobe's own analytics in the app; what the Mapbox map SDK sends is described under Map imagery above, and the separate analytics on our website is described under Website analytics below.)

Support email — only if you send it

If you use Prepare Diagnostic Report, PixGlobe shows you the exact report text for review; you then either send it as an email from your own mail account, or — if Mail isn't configured — copy the text to paste wherever you choose. The report can contain only: your PixGlobe Support ID (a random identifier created on your device), app and OS versions, aggregate library counts, and recent error codes. It is structurally incapable of containing photos, locations, place names, or timestamps. If you send it (or email us anything), we receive your email address and what you sent, and we use it solely to help you. We don't add support senders to any list, and we don't share support email content.

Website analytics

Pixglobe.com uses StatCounter to understand visits to this marketing website. StatCounter receives ordinary web-request and usage information such as IP address, approximate location, browser and device details, referring page, pages visited, and visit times, and it uses browser storage or a cookie to distinguish visits. This is the website only: StatCounter receives no data from the PixGlobe app — not your photo library, not your photo locations, and nothing the app stores on your device.

StatCounter processes this information as our website analytics provider. For more information, see StatCounter's privacy information.

Purchases

PixGlobe offers an optional one-time "Pro" upgrade through the store you downloaded the app from — the Apple App Store or Google Play. That store sells and processes the purchase under its own terms and handles payment, tax and refunds. PixGlobe never receives or stores your payment card or billing details. Whether you own Pro is worked out on your device: the store's purchase framework (Apple's StoreKit or Google Play Billing) tells the app whether the unlock is active, and the app runs no server of its own for purchases and sends purchase information nowhere.

Separately from the app, the stores make sales and order information about PixGlobe purchases available to us — for example order references, dates, amounts and country, and on Google Play the ability to look up an individual order. We use it only to run the business: accounting and tax, refunds and support enquiries, and fraud prevention. We do not use it for advertising or profiling, and we never connect it to anything the app keeps on your device, which we do not receive.

The full disclosure — what you get, restoring a purchase, and how to request a refund from Apple — is on Purchases & Refunds.

What PixGlobe doesn't do

No accounts. No sign-in. No ads. No data sale or sharing with data brokers. No cross-app tracking — by PixGlobe or by the bundled Mapbox map SDK. (Counsel confirmed 2026-07-17, and the 2026-07-18 on-device network capture bore out, that nothing the Mapbox SDK sends meets Apple's tracking definition — no advertising identifiers, no ad use; the App Store label answer is "Data Not Used to Track You.")

Permissions

PixGlobe asks for photo-library access to do its one job. You can grant full or limited access, change it any time in your device's Settings app, and PixGlobe explains — rather than nags — when access is missing. Denying access never breaks the parts of the app that don't need it.

Children

PixGlobe is a general-audience app. It has no social network, public posting, in-app messaging, or web browsing, and it does not host shared content; its only sharing is the user-initiated system share sheet for one rendered photo. It is not directed at children, and the app's data behavior described above is the same for every user.

Changes to this policy

If PixGlobe's data behavior ever changes, this policy changes first, with the effective date above, and material changes will be called out in the release notes on the store you downloaded PixGlobe from.

Contact

Questions: support@pixglobe.com (in the app: Settings → Prepare Diagnostic Report, or Settings → Copy Support ID to include your Support ID in any email).